Help Stuck on the Droid Bionic red circle screen

[Charntodd]

I have the biggest challenge ever. I have the droid bionic and it is stuck in the boot screen that has the red circle. I am now referring to this as the circle of doom. It stays there forever. I can not do a factory reset because I have never backed up any of my contacts, apps, or pics and I really do not want to loose them - I do not have them saved anywhere..not even my Sd Card. Looking back I know I shoudl have figured out how to back up my information but I have just never had the time... No one from verizon or motorola was able to help me...Any suggestions?

 

[Lars]

You didn't mention what you did to get this. 'fess up. It will only help people help you.

1. Check your google account from a PC to see if your contacts synced there. They generally do. Later when you restore they will just sync back.
2. Pull the SD card out of your phone, put it in a PC and look for your pics.
3. Pull the battery, put it back in, hold down both vol up/dn while pressing power. See if the recovery menu comes up. From there, we have options.

 

[Charntodd]

I didn't do anything, I don't think. I had turned off my phone the night before to charge and when I turned it on the next morning it would never stop loading that droid red circle. I did not back up anything on my google account and I had my phone set to store everything internally so there is nothing on my SD card I know nothing about my phone obviously!!

I did pull the battery and when I put it back in I did hold the power button and the volume up and down keys and there is this menu that pops up with options lsited. They are Normal Powerup, Recovery, AP Fastboot, BP SBF Flash, BP Only, BP HW Diag & Boot AP, BP Tools. I have no idea what any of those are for.

 

[bone69]

Sounds like the sd card may be loose our dirty..take it out and seat it again..and as far s apps go.they are all in your google account..just go to the market on a computer and resend the ones you want to your phone.

 

[Thom]

... yes and make sure the SD-Ext and SIM cards both are clean and they are firmly and squarely seated.

... Thom

 

[Charntodd]

I cleaned and repositoned my sim and SD card but it still does not get out of the red droid cirlce loading screen. I tried my hubby's sim card and SD card in my phone and it still does not pass the red droid circle loading screen.

 

[Lars]

Sounds like you need to flash. If it is less than a year it is under warranty and you can go to Verizon if flashing is not your thing. The advantage of flashing is that internal storage is not wiped as I recall so your pics would still be there. Contacts would be lost though there are a few flash files around somewhere that don't wipe data.

 

[Charntodd]

I am not sure what "flashing" is so probably not my thing, but I am willing to try. Do you think I would just google search for a flash file that does not wipe your data?

 

[Lars]

It is a VERY advanced procedure. This is the only procedure I know of that will reflash without losing /data partition. If you are not familiar with flashing a phone the normal way with RSD Lite, this will be even more difficult. People experienced with this procedure struggle and they have phones that boot. Worst case you have to flash the normal way. Make sure the battery is fully charged.

You will need the BionicPathSaver.zip file 767014bytes. If you were on 901 firmware or newer you will need 901fix.zip to repair a CDT.bin error 3KB. You will need the Motorola drivers installed from Admin on a PC.

You will have to push the 886 or 896 firmware from recovery since the phone doesn't boot. Do not flash the 901 at any time.

What this does.

No matter what rom/firmware you have this will take your device and put you back on the official update of 5.5.896 and you will have the option to update to the 5.9.901 update. This update will also root your device so all you have to do is double click on the runme.bat file.


Instructions:
1) Download the path saver
2) unpack and place all files in the same folder
3) make sure usb mode is Charge Only (you'll have to boot in to recovery for sbf flash which probably means putting the file on the SD card manually)
4) attach device to computer with usb cable
5) double click the runme file

How this works:

First the Bionic has a locked bootloader that makes restoring and modifying the Bionic difficult. Due to this we have to perform some work arounds.

1) This script will first push the 5.5.893 and then the 5.9.901 updates to your sdcard (these files will be needed to complete the update)
2) You phone will reboot to bootloader and then the script will push the necessary 5.5.886 system/preinstall/webtop partitions to the device (this takes some time be patient)
3) The phone will reboot and the script will root the build (don't worry if Superuser fails to install. That means you already have it installed), push the necessary boot.img to the boot partition
4) The phone will reboot in recovery mode and you will need to install 5.5.893, if you want to try 5.9.901 install it immediately after 5.5.893.
5) Your phone will reboot and the script will again root your device. (don't worry if Superuser fails to install. That means you already have it installed)

You are all finished, congrats and thanks for trying this script.


****** CDT.bin error *****
if you were previously running 5.9.901 you may get a cdt.bin error. Do not panic do the following.

Download this cdt.bin and script to the same directory
Double click on 901fix.bat

Download File ----> 901fix.zip

 

[Lars]

Otherwise go here http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid-bionic/474160-5-5-893-fxz-file-leaked.html

You'll need the Moto drivers, RSD Lite and the fxz file

 

[eyedea]

It is a VERY advanced procedure. This is the only procedure I know of that will reflash without losing /data partition. If you are not familiar with flashing a phone the normal way with RSD Lite, this will be even more difficult. People experienced with this procedure struggle and they have phones that boot. Worst case you have to flash the normal way. Make sure the battery is fully charged.

You will need the BionicPathSaver.zip file 767014bytes. If you were on 901 firmware or newer you will need 901fix.zip to repair a CDT.bin error 3KB. You will need the Motorola drivers installed from Admin on a PC.

You will have to push the 886 or 896 firmware from recovery since the phone doesn't boot. Do not flash the 901 at any time.

What this does.

No matter what rom/firmware you have this will take your device and put you back on the official update of 5.5.896 and you will have the option to update to the 5.9.901 update. This update will also root your device so all you have to do is double click on the runme.bat file.


Instructions:
1) Download the path saver
2) unpack and place all files in the same folder
3) make sure usb mode is Charge Only (you'll have to boot in to recovery for sbf flash which probably means putting the file on the SD card manually)
4) attach device to computer with usb cable
5) double click the runme file

How this works:

First the Bionic has a locked bootloader that makes restoring and modifying the Bionic difficult. Due to this we have to perform some work arounds.

1) This script will first push the 5.5.893 and then the 5.9.901 updates to your sdcard (these files will be needed to complete the update)
2) You phone will reboot to bootloader and then the script will push the necessary 5.5.886 system/preinstall/webtop partitions to the device (this takes some time be patient)
3) The phone will reboot and the script will root the build (don't worry if Superuser fails to install. That means you already have it installed), push the necessary boot.img to the boot partition
4) The phone will reboot in recovery mode and you will need to install 5.5.893, if you want to try 5.9.901 install it immediately after 5.5.893.
5) Your phone will reboot and the script will again root your device. (don't worry if Superuser fails to install. That means you already have it installed)

You are all finished, congrats and thanks for trying this script.


****** CDT.bin error *****

if you were previously running 5.9.901 you may get a cdt.bin error. Do not panic do the following.

Download this cdt.bin and script to the same directory
Double click on 901fix.bat

Download File ----> 901fix.zip

You can go to 902 directly. You can flash the 902 with RSDlite easily. Here is dfibs guide: http://androidforums.com/bionic-all-things-root/480176-how-flash-5-5-893-5-9-902-rsdlite.html

 

[Lars]

You can go to 902 directly. You can flash the 902 with RSDlite easily. Here is dfibs guide: http://androidforums.com/bionic-all-things-root/480176-how-flash-5-5-893-5-9-902-rsdlite.html

Yes but she would definitely lose her contact data that way.

 

[eyedea]

Yes but she would definitely lose her contact data that way.

Incorrect. Contacts and apps are stored by google or verizon backup assistant. You will loose app data though using the standard practice. However, here is file to prevent the internal sd card from being wiped...http://dl.dropbox.com/u/63864500/5.9.902_eye_dea_xml.zip

Just put that file in the downloaded 902 fxz folder and run the 5.9.902_eye_dea in RSDlite. (props to timmy10shoes for the file).

If you were already on 902 before this incident. You can simply moto-fastboot the system.img. It will take less than 10 minutes to complete.
This is the route I would go.

Hit me up in a PM if you need any help or want to moto-fastboot and I can help you further.

 

[eyedea]

Otherwise go here http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid-bionic/474160-5-5-893-fxz-file-leaked.html

You'll need the Moto drivers, RSD Lite and the fxz file

If they were already on 902...then flashing back to 893 will cause all sorts of issues. This method is not recommended anymore.
The 902 fxz will flash over any old versions, so we don't need to use pathsaver anymore. Lucky for us, Moto made 902 a thing of beauty and we don't have to worry about getting off the path.

 

[doogald]

Incorrect. Contacts and apps are stored by google. You will loose app data though using the standard practice. However, here is file to prevent the internal sd card from being wiped...http://dl.dropbox.com/u/63864500/5.9.902_eye_dea_xml.zip

The OP posted earlier that the contacts were not backed up - I'm assuming that means that they are phone contacts. Of course, I believe that those are backed up if you set up Verizon Backup Assistant, but not everyone does that (I do not, for example, since I use Google contacts exclusively.)

All that said, it would be interesting if Charntodd went to https://www.google.com/contacts/#contacts (logged in to the same Google account as was used on the phone) to verify that there are no contacts there. RSD may not be necessary - just a factory data reset might bring the phone back, if the contacts are not lost.

 

[eyedea]

The OP posted earlier that the contacts were not backed up - I'm assuming that means that they are phone contacts. Of course, I believe that those are backed up if you set up Verizon Backup Assistant, but not everyone does that (I do not, for example, since I use Google contacts exclusively.)

All that said, it would be interesting if Charntodd went to https://www.google.com/contacts/#contacts (logged in to the same Google account as was used on the phone) to verify that there are no contacts there. RSD may not be necessary - just a factory data reset might bring the phone back, if the contacts are not lost.

Within the contact app, you can change the backup setting to google. Otherwise, the default is verizon backup assistant. But the verizon backup assistant is garbage. It always fails for me. (I updated my earlier post to include verizon backup assistant.)

A factory data reset may be an option, but that will wipe all app data too. I seems to me that the root of the problem is deeper.
The file I provided will keep all data safe, if used properly. Also, the moto-fastboot option will not affect the contacts.

 

[doogald]

Within the contact app, you can change the backup setting to google. Otherwise, the default is verizon backup assistant.

Again, just to clear this up - within the contacts app, menu->more->settings->contacts storage, it is possible to create contact in an account called "Phone only, unsynced". Once created, from within the contacts app, I cannot find a way to change these contacts to "synced" (though I think that they can be exported to CSV and then imported to the phone in another account that is synced. That does not help the OP in this case.)

If you do nothing I believe that contacts are stored in the Google account, which is why I suggested checking there from a PC browser in my last post. But it is possible that there are contacts that are on the phone, not backed up, and, if the phone is wiped, they will be lost.

 

[Lars]

Again, just to clear this up - within the contacts app, menu->more->settings->contacts storage, it is possible to create contact in an account called "Phone only, unsynced". Once created, from within the contacts app, I cannot find a way to change these contacts to "synced" (though I think that they can be exported to CSV and then imported to the phone in another account that is synced. That does not help the OP in this case.)

If you do nothing I believe that contacts are stored in the Google account, which is why I suggested checking there from a PC browser in my last post. But it is possible that there are contacts that are on the phone, not backed up, and, if the phone is wiped, they will be lost.

I agree completely. She insists they are not backed up but she would have to have done deliberate work to avoid them being backed up to google. Everytime you create a new contact the phone asks. If you select Phone-only, unsynced, then God help you. She hasn't made the statement, "I looked from a PC at my google account, and my contacts were not backed up." Nevertheless, taking her statements into account (if eyedea was willing to read carefully) I was providing a solution to try to rescue those contacts.

 

[eyedea]

Again, just to clear this up - within the contacts app, menu->more->settings->contacts storage, it is possible to create contact in an account called "Phone only, unsynced". Once created, from within the contacts app, I cannot find a way to change these contacts to "synced" (though I think that they can be exported to CSV and then imported to the phone in another account that is synced. That does not help the OP in this case.)

If you do nothing I believe that contacts are stored in the Google account, which is why I suggested checking there from a PC browser in my last post. But it is possible that there are contacts that are on the phone, not backed up, and, if the phone is wiped, they will be lost.

When at contacts storage...It has Google and Backup Assistant as the two options. For some reason it has Backup Assistant as default, which is crap.
Google cloud: New Android Commercial Reminds You That Your Contacts, Calendars, and Photos Have Always Been in the Cloud – Droid Life
I would be willing to loose my contacts before not being able to use my phone though.

 

[eyedea]

I agree completely. She insists they are not backed up but she would have to have done deliberate work to avoid them being backed up to google. Everytime you create a new contact the phone asks. If you select Phone-only, unsynced, then God help you. She hasn't made the statement, "I looked from a PC at my google account, and my contacts were not backed up." Nevertheless, taking her statements into account (if eyedea was willing to read carefully) I was providing a solution to try to rescue those contacts.

Really? Did you read my posts? The fact that you should not be going back to earlier versions? Did you see the file to run with RSDlite? The file that wont touch data. Or the other possible solution to use the moto-fastboot method.

 

[doogald]

I would be willing to loose my contacts before not being able to use my phone though.

Same here... I would have chalked this one up to experience within an hour myself.

 

[Lars]

Really? Did you read my posts? The fact that you should not be going back to earlier versions? Did you see the file to run with RSDlite? The file that wont touch data. Or the other possible solution to use the moto-fastboot method.

Yes I did. This is the link you posted and it surprised me that you posted. I suspect you overlooked a few details of the post.

http://androidforums.com/bionic-all-things-root/480176-how-flash-5-5-893-5-9-902-rsdlite.html

If you follow it you will see, in very large red letters at the top, that it will wipe your data.

That is my experience as well having flashed dozens of phones. RSD, Odin, Kies, CW, Koush, OTAs new firmware, old firmware, just radio flashes, just system partitions; they all function differently. I've gone backwards on firmware versions many times on Moto phones. No problem as long as Moto hasn't updated the bootloader keys. What's wrong with going to an earlier version to restore and then OTA to the current one?

Realisticly, I think she will have a tough time getting her data back and the thread you posted is the quickest way to get her phone working. The easiest will be for her to warranty exchange.

 

[timmy10shoes]

It would be best to use the 902 fxz and the edited XML eye_dea linked you. I took out the erase userdata command for people that use stock and want to keep their data. I also removed the erase emstorage command so your internal sdcard will not be wiped either.

 

[Lars]

That would work then and be a great solution. Either substituting for your XML or editing the existing XML, unfortunately I think we've lost the original poster at this point in complexity.

Thanks for the useful posts guys.

 

[eyedea]

Yes I did. This is the link you posted and it surprised me that you posted. I suspect you overlooked a few details of the post.

http://androidforums.com/bionic-all-things-root/480176-how-flash-5-5-893-5-9-902-rsdlite.html

If you follow it you will see, in very large red letters at the top, that it will wipe your data.

That is my experience as well having flashed dozens of phones. RSD, Odin, Kies, CW, Koush, OTAs new firmware, old firmware, just radio flashes, just system partitions; they all function differently. I've gone backwards on firmware versions many times on Moto phonesl. No problem as long as Moto hasn't updated the bootloader keys. What's wrong with going to an earlier version to restore and then OTA to the current one?

Realisticly, I think she will have a tough time getting her data back and the thread you posted is the quickest way to get her phone working. The easiest will be for her to warranty exchange.

Yeah. I should of posted timmy10shoes file with the rsdlite link. I was at work and in a rush though. I hope the op comes back tho.